The Redlands Rave. Junior League Bandits Games Reports. Compiled by Dorry Beutel

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1 The Redlands Rave Compiled by Dorry Beutel Issue 2 12 November, 2017 Junior League Bandits Games Reports Despite being two players down, our Junior League Bandits team recorded a narrow 9-8 win over Pine Hills Lightning on Saturday 14 th October. Ayden Champneys led the pitching striking out four batters and allowing only five safe hits in his three innings pitched. Rays safe hits were by David Riley and Nathan Murray (Little League) who played up from Little League Rays to fill one of the positions in the Junior League Team. In the game against West Bulldogs on 28 th October, Kai Poon was impressive as starting pitcher, achieving six strikeouts and allowing only three safe hits over his four innings on the mound. Gabe Kushi pitched the last inning with two strikeouts and allowed only one hit from six batters. Rays batting against Bulldogs produced singles from Jamie Doran, Ayden Champneys, Ryan Baker and Hayden Rowe, doubles from Kai Poon and Josh Wilson, a triple from Gabe Kushi and an infield home run with loaded bases from David Riley. Ayden Champneys, Jamie Croon and Gabe Kushi assisted in a double play and Kayne Saverin and David Riley took the only catches of the game. These phots of the Rays Junior League Bandits are curtesy of Sharon Powell, Mum of Deegan Powell in the Senior League Rays Bandits team. Thanks for taking them and allowing me to use them in the newsletter. Editor I NS I DE T HI S I S S UE Junior League Bandits Win Meet 2 of Our Original Club Members Meet Our Sub-Committee Part 1 A Blast From the Past From the Redland City Bulletin Online Issue 2 Did You Know?? Editors Note Our Sponsors Page

2 Meet Two of Our Original Club Members IT / Website Manager - Stephen Schneider itsupport@redlandsrays.com.au - Ph: Stephen started playing baseball at the Hendra All-Stars Club when he was six years old but his first year at Redlands was in the 1989/90 season as a player in the U10 s Navajo team when the club was called Southside Indians and was affiliated with the current Indians Baseball Club. As a junior player, Stephen pitched and played 1 st base and now, as a Senior, his primary positions have been centre field and pitcher. After playing for most of his junior career at Redlands, Stephen ventured to Windsor Royals for a season, and Carina Redsox for two seasons, before returning to Redlands. He is currently plays in the Division 3 Rays 2 team, as well as in the Masters team. Stephen represented Brisbane South throughout his junior career and in his final year of junior baseball, he played for Brisbane Metro. He was a member of the Queensland team in 1995 and had three trips to the United States with Queensland Taipans. Stephen is our IT & Website Manager and looks after our web and Facebook pages and anything else to do with information technology. He is currently in his final semester at Bond University where he is completing a degree in Sports Management. He is also a member of the GBL (Greater Brisbane League) Committee. Athol (Red) Cunningham Red started playing t-ball for Redlands in the 1991/92 season in the U8 s team when the club was called the Southside Indians Baseball Club and he has played for Redlands in every summer season since then. During the winter seasons, he played for other clubs including Mudgeeraba and Runaway Bay. He has also played in a number of representative teams including for Brisbane South, Metropolitan East Schoolboys, Queensland Schoolboys and the Australian Expos in which he participated in 3 tours playing against teams from Chicago, California, San Diego, San Francisco. While a Junior player, Red s preferred positions were middle infield and relief pitcher but he played all positions at some time through his junior years and as a senior he has mainly played 2 nd base, 3 rd base, relief pitcher and catcher. He is also currently playing in the Division 3 Rays 2 team. When asked about his memories of early Redlands Baseball Club, Red commented I have seen many changes with the club over the years. We have gone from a little shipping container on the hill as a canteen to the clubhouse it is today. The bottom field used to have 2 full diamonds and the field was big enough to have four tee ball games or 2 junior games going at once. As the fields were built over a dump, every time it rained, the underlying rocks and stones would be brought up all over the fields. This meant before any team could train we had to tr y and fill the plastic baseball bucket with rocks and after training we would have to rake the field and pick up more rocks even though another team was training after us. This continued for about five seasons. Issue 2 Page 2

3 Meet Our Sub-Committee Members Uniform Co-ordinator - Darryn Smallwood uniform.coordinator@redlandsrays.com.au Darryn first became involved with Redlands Rays in 2014 when his son, Blake started playing T-Ball. During that season, he volunteered to help with grounds maintenance and, since then, has worked with the grounds crew whenever he has the time. Darryn has 5 children and 2 jobs and is also uniform coordinator for his daughter s netball team and assistant coach for Blake s soccer team. He likes to help out where he can as he knows that sporting clubs are only as strong as the people in it. This season Darryn has signed up for the role of club uniform coordinator and umpire for Blake s Little League Bandits team. He is also continuing to work with the grounds crew to keep our fields looking as spectacular as they are. When asked, he commented I like to help out where I can as I know that sporting clubs don t run without help and are only as strong as the people in it. Media Co-ordinator - Dorry Beutel rave@redlandsrays.com.au Ph: I first became a baseball supporter with Redlands Baseball Club in 2007 when my elder grandson, Brett Riley, started playing T-Ball. Although I didn t attend every game in the beginning, I was hooked after watching the semi-finals of 2010 school boys softball state titles where Brett s team was playing and since then, when possible, I have attended every club baseball game. Those state titles were also responsible for my interest in scoring and for my own curiosity, I started by just marking runs and outs. However, as Brett was a pitcher, before I knew it, I was also noting pitch counts. I was also an avid photographer and took thousands of action photos during Brett s early playing years. In 2012, my younger grandson, David, also started playing and at his first club game, his coach handed me the score book. My reaction was rather comical as I hadn t seen a proper scorebook before. However, I quickly learned what to do and have been scoring for whatever team David has been in since then. I have even achieved Level 1 status with my Level 2 exam to come before the end of this season. Unfortunately, taking on the scoring role put an end to my action photography and my album is seriously lacking David's early action photos. At this year s AGM, I volunteered to take on the Media Co-ordinator role and my focus is to get our club out there in the community media through the Redland City Bulletin online and in newspaper form as well as through our club s Facebook page. I encourage everyone to introduce themselves to other members, get to know your fellow supporters and eventually you will get to make some great friends. Issue 2 Page 3

4 A Blast From the Past Our blast from the past this week takes us back to April 2012 when our club hosted that year s Little League State Titles where eight regional teams from the greater Brisbane area, Gold Coast, North Queensland and Lismore competed for the right to contest the Australian Little League Championships at Tallebudgera on the Gold Coast. The Brisbane South team included ten Redlands Rays Little Leaguers and they finished the round robin competition undefeated. This ensured that Souths had home team advantage in the most exciting Little League grand final against Brisbane North that even the BQ officials had seen for a long time. The game was drawn at 5-5 through the 10 th inning until Brisbane North brought 6 runners home in the top of the 11 th. Unfortunately one of those runners knocked Souths catcher, Nick Johnstone, over at home plate ending with Nick being taken off to hospital for observation. The game was declared a win for Brisbane North even though the inning wasn t completed. After some intense discussion between the Brisbane South Manager, David Badke, and the BQ officials, it was decided that both teams would be allowed to participate in the National Championships along with Far North Coast as the Queensland Country entry, and Gold Coast as the host team. Brisbane South proved they definitely deserved to be there when they had resounding wins against all but one of their pool opponents, putting them into the semi-final against Perth Metro North. They were the only Queensland team to make the play-offs. With Perth as the home team, Souths fought hard keeping the game at 0-0 through 6 innings until Perth finally scored the winning run at the bottom of the 7th inning. Perth Metro North went on to take the title 29-2 against Yarra Rangers. At the closing ceremony the Perth players commented to our boys that they wished the grand final had been against Brisbane South as they were great opponents and it would have been an exciting game. Continued over.. Issue 2 Page 4

5 A Blast From the Past cont. Back Row From Left: Dudley Johnson (Assistant Coach), Frank Didovich (Executive Officer), Kody Saverin (Rays), Ned Somerville (Hawks), Sheldon Waller (Indians), Joey Norup (Hawks), Rob Towart (Assistant Coach), Sebastian Price-Jones (Rays), Frano Didovich (Rays), Callum Macdonald (Rays), David Badke (Manager) Front Row: Ryan C, Tom Lord (Rays), Brett Riley (Rays), Steven Bressow-Thomas (Hawks), Conor Laverty (Rays), Ryan Towart (Rays), Hayden Michie (Rays) Missing: Nick Johnstone (Rays) THE REDLANDS RAVE needs your input Coaches, managers, parents, family and supporters Please send your photos, stories and captions to Dorry for the newsletter all content to: Issue 2 Page 5

6 From the Redland City Bulletin Online Redlands Rays welcome Americans to the team Rays Baseball Club has welcomed three college players from the United States who will be playing for Redlands in the Senior Division 1 and 2 leagues for the 2017/18 baseball season. They are Ben Andrews, Dustin Wells and Riley Moore. Ben s home town is Seattle, Washington and he is currently affiliated with the Linfield College Wildcats baseball team in Texas. He first started playing T-Ball when he was 4 years old and his preferred positions are first base, third base or short stop. While at Redlands, Ben will be coaching the Rays Junior League Bandits team and is being hosted by the Murray family at Birkdale. Dustin comes from Glendale, Arizona and his college is George Fox University. He started playing baseball at Little League level and is a pitcher for his university team. Dustin will be the starting pitcher for the Rays Division 1 team during his time at Redlands and is hosted by Matt Wyatt. Riley s home is in Danville, California and he also started playing T-Ball at age four. Riley comes to us from Diablo Valley College Vikings in California. His preferred position is pitcher but he has also been an infielder and catcher. While he is with us, Riley will be coaching the Rays Little League Bandits team and is looking forward to being involved in club events wherever he can. Riley s cousin, Frank Chance is in the Baseball Hall of Fame and you can read all about Frank at Riley s host family is Elisabeth Caloiero-Smith and son, Isaac. Redlands Baseball also welcomes new Head Coach, Dudley Johnson who this season will be coaching the club s Division 1 and 2 teams. Dudley has been playing baseball since he was 9 years old and for most of his playing years, was involved with Logan Sharks, Runcorn Indians and Redcliffe Padres. For the past six years, he has held the position of Assistant Coach for Brisbane South Senior League Teams, accompanying them to State and National Championships in Brisbane, Lismore, the Gold Coast and interstate. Welcome to Rays: Redlands Rays imported players, Ben Andrews, Dus+n Well, and Riley Moore with new head coach, Dudley Johnson. Issue 2 Page 6

7 Did You Know? Researched and copied from Wikipedia The first recorded baseball event in Australia took place 160 years ago in Melbourne, Victoria in 1857, between teams from Collingwood and Richmond. Accounts vary as to the details, including whether it was a single game or a series of three games, and although details in common include a score of in favor of Collingwood, it is said that the rules used were some form of hybrid between cricket and baseball, with teams batting until all players were out, and runs being scored for every base crossed, rather than just for reaching home plate. Though there are no records to confirm it, the commonly held belief is that baseball in Australia originated on the Ballarat gold-fields among American miners. The Claxton Shield, the first annually recurring national tournament, commenced in Though the tournament itself has been supplanted at various points in its history, the physical Shield is still awarded to the national champions in the Australian Baseball League. Since 2011, the national champions have then competed against other Issue 2 Page 7

8 Editors Note Dear Rays members and supporters I must apologise for the delay with posting the re-created Issue 2 of the Redlands Rave. Between a busy workload, a baseball night game and a long-standing weekend commitment, the spare time I had to get back on top with the newsletter was dramatically reduced over the last two weeks. The Redlands Rave is meant to be for EVERY member of the club and feature every team, every player, every coach, manager, scorer, parent and supporter as often as possible. However, I can t create a regular newsletter without consistent original content. Remember the quote from the baseball movie Field of Dreams ; if you build it, they will come? Well, if you send it to me, it will appear in the newsletter. Remember, nothing is too minor, too silly, or too repetitious. Parents, you know best if your son or daughter has hit his or her first ball, taken their first catch, made their first out, struck out their first batter or, as an experienced player, has had a phenomenal game. Please take a photo of your child during or after the event and send it and the caption to me. Scorers, I would greatly appreciate a short re-cap of the game plays after each game. If you are a novice scorer, just a run down of safe hits, the number of bases run, runners batted in, catches, strike-outs is enough for a games report. Coaches and/or Managers, some photos taken before, during or after the games would be really helpful. Ideally, I would like to include games reports for every team, in every issue. Committee & sub-committee, if there is a story that needs telling (for example, new sponsors, a good deed, anything newsworthy) please forward it on to me for inclusion in the Rave.. And don t forget, there are still a lot of volunteers whose profiles are still outstanding!! Please me for the questionnaire at your earliest convenience. Work with me, everyone.. Remember, it s YOUR newsletter!!! I m just the builder! Don t forget to send all content and photos to rave@redlandsrays.com.au Thanks lots for your co-operation Dorry Issue 2 Page 8

9 With Thanks to Our Sponsors Issue 2 Page 9